Earlier today, Funimation posted on their blog a 15-second teaser video about their in-development community site, ShoDojo.com. It follows the same visual style as the walls of their booths at some summer conventions (such as Anime Expo) with words and phrases fitted against each other with some perpendicular to the rest. Since the teaser is so quickly cut with spinning motions, I had to progress slowly through it to see what some of the less prominent words actually were.

The mention of “private screenings” brings to my mind something similar to the Cinemas in Gaia Online or, less so, the Netflix party watching recently added in the latest Xbox 360 dashboard update. It could also be something different like special events with limited attendance.

“HD streams” shows up again along with the last half of “subscription with bonuses” – I previously spotted both on their AX booth. There’s also “premieres at the theat[re]“, which is likely a virtual cinema as opposed to a real-life one.

The phrase “manga library” starts to come into view just before the angle shifts and could refer to the manga creation tool. It could also be a way to track what manga you own/have read but I think this is less likely since this has been pitched as an “anime video community”. It’s still a possibility, though. As you’d expect in a community site, you can “start a group” and have the freedom to “roleplay”.

Among shows mentioned in the mess of motion were Sasami, which I’d forgotten was even a series, and Origin: Spirits of the Past, meaning the whole 90-minute movie could be shown on the site, maybe at one of those private screenings.

Here’s another instance of “HD streams” in the words-falling-away transition to the ShoDojo.com tagline.

Apart from presentations at conventions, little has been revealed about the interface and features so this entire post is purely speculative. I have yet to hear any details about when the site is supposed to launch (presumably by the end of the year) so we’re all still playing the waiting game.

(UPDATE 6/24 3:44PM PDT: Robert of his eponymous Anime Corner Store wrote a post [saw via scottfrye] saying they now have pretty much all the same items up for pre-order.)

GONZO anime Burst Angel is evidently getting a Blu-ray release on September 29th at a list price of $79.98. (TRSI’s pre-order price is currently $60.) It will have all 24 TV episodes and the Infinity OVA, just like its Viridian Collection release in June 2008, except now in high-definition.

Nabari no Ou will have its first 13-episode set come out on September 22nd at a typical $59.98 price point. The ninja action series was one of Funi’s New Show A Go Go licenses last December and the manga is currently being published by Yen Press.

Sgt. Frog (aka Keroro) Season 1 Part 1 comes out on Sept. 22nd. That date was announced during their main panel at Anime Next but not the “budget” list price of $39.98 for 12 episodes. That’s at the same level as their Shin-chan releases but this will be a hybrid release (remember their test episode from November?) unlike the dubbed only Shin-chan.

Other first-run releases include the second half of Big Windup! sliding home (TRSI; RACS) on Sept. 29th ($59.99 MSRP), 6 weeks after the first half; the second half of Kaze no Stigma dropping on Sept. 1st ($59.98 MSRP); and One Piece Season 2 Part 3 continuing the adventures of the Going Merry crew on Sept. 29th ($49.98 MSRP). RACS also has that One Piece box set listed, saying it contains episodes 79-91.

After having finished with their Dragon Ball GT and DBZ uncut box sets, Funi will give the same treatment to the original Dragon Ball series when they release the first season uncut DVD set on Sept. 15th for $49.98 MSRP, the same price point as their previous uncut box sets from the franchise.

I’ll wrap up talking about Funi with some former Geneon releases. On Sept. 29, a box set of Heat Guy J will come out at $49.98 MSRP (TRSI) and both Black Lagoon seasons are being repackaged into a single box set at $69.98 MSRP, also on Sept. 29 (RACS; TRSI). There will also be a number of repricings of their $69.98 Geneon box set reissues last year: Ergo Proxy on Sept. 29th (RACS; TRSI), Fate/stay night on Sept. 1st (RACS; TRSI), and Shakugan no Shana on Sept. 15th (RACS; TRSI).

Finally: there are some Nozomi releases of some decades-old series. The first of two Kimba the White Lion mini-collections come out at $49.98 MSRP on October 6th (link), the second Gigantor collection on Sept. 15 for $39.98 MSRP (link), and two mini-collections of Astro Boy, both on Oct. 6th at $49.98 MSRP apiece (set 1, set 2)

Whew, that was tiring to put together!

UPDATE 6/23 11:10 PM PDT: I later found out that Nozomi had issued separate press releases about the Kimba and Astro Boy mini-sets.

This is a follow-up to Monday’s post about Funimation joining Comcast’s video on demand service. I didn’t start up any of the episodes because I wanted to keep the video relatively short so I don’t know if some of the content that is originally widescreen would have been displayed as such, though I imagine it should.

A few things I’ll point out:
1) There is a folder for Ouran Host Club but no episodes are there right now. I looked at the online listings and episodes 1-5 should have been there. Episodes 1 & 2 are set to expire tomorrow (May 15th) and episodes 6 & 7 should be added tomorrow as well.
2) There are entries for Aria ep. 1 and Maria Watches Over Us ep. 1 under Anime Network’s free offerings. (as reported here) Both are set to expire after June 3rd.
3) Under Movies & Events – Anime Network, Clannad Vol. 3 and Vol. 4 (both 97 min.) are available for $3.99 each. It’s not a wild guess to think the former contains episodes 7-9 and the latter has episodes 10-12.

FUNimation announced Monday (saw this on Anime Vice) that they have joined Comcast’s On Demand service through two folders: The Cutting Edge, where other anime video-on-demand offerings like Anime Network reside, and Movies & Events, where pay-per-view content can be found. While the addition of already-released series through a standard free VOD model is nice for me as a customer, I’m finding “pre-release pay-per-view access” that “provides unprecedented sneak peek access to brands before the release on DVD” a little more interesting. PPV offerings for this month will include xxxHOLiC, Devil May Cry, and Tsubasa while Honey & Clover and NANA are mentioned among those slated for this summer. (I shouldn’t have been too surprised to see those last two considering this but I still was.) I will try to explore both folders tomorrow and maybe I’ll shoot a video while doing that.

This story reminds me of one that may not have received much press when it came out in mid-April: the appearance of streaming and DTO labels on Viz’s websites for the Honey & Clover and NANA anime. Both components are currently unavailable but at least one of them is likely to be enabled this summer since the first NANA box set is supposedly due out July 21st.

The DTO episodes should carry the now-standard price of $1.99 per episode for downloadable videos and could just entail links to various download services (iTunes, Zune Marketplace, et al.). I wonder what their PPV price on Comcast might be – according to their VOD blog post, Funi has their new dubbed series pre-DVD release series pegged at 99 cents – a very reasonable price point considering you’ll if you choose to watch that way – so it’s very likely that Viz’s will bear that price as well, but there is still a chance it could be a little higher. Their $2.99 price point for movies is the same that Comcast offers for library titles on their general Movies on Demand service and that Apple does for library titles on its Apple TV and through iTunes. I suspect that the streaming component might involve Hulu if they are planning to embed episodes onto each respective show site since Viz also uses that for Naruto.com.

FUNimation’s foray into PPV adds another method of non-DVD distribution for the company along with streaming episodes through Hulu, YouTube, Joost, Veoh, and their own video portal as well as offering download-to-own episodes through their web site, iTunes, Xbox Live & Zune Marketplaces and, most recently, the Playstation Network. Viz has been making similar strides into “alternative” distribution with a presence on many of the same video portals and marketplaces that FUNimation is on. They also brokered an arrangement to stream newly-aired-in-Japan episodes of Naruto Shippuden on Crunchyroll, Hulu, and their own Naruto site.

The “octopus approach” operated by both companies continues to take them to new platforms, though Viz has some catching up to do. Meanwhile, Bandai just began on putting episodes on YouTube in February and currently have Code Geass season 1 and Gundam 00 up there. They don’t have the financial flexibility to venture out as much as the other two do but at least they’re starting to experiment with it.

P.S. I know this is all US-centric stuff so if you choose to make a comment, don’t just complain about regional restrictions. By the way, Evan Flournoy, Manager of Brand Protection and Rights Enforcement for Funimation, said last week that those restrictions are mandated by the licensors.

This spring season features the highest amount of premiering anime being streamed legally with more than a half dozen premiering series currently “simulcast” on the Internet. Most of them are on Crunchyroll – Saki, Hayate no Gotoku!!, Natsu no Arashi, Shangri-la, Mainichi Kaa-san, and Ristorante Paradiso – while FUNimation is following up Shikabane Hime with Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood except this time, they are restricting the new episodes to their video portal.

The ball got rolling in spring 2008 when Gonzo GDH placed Tower of Druaga and Blassreiter onto YouTube, BOST, and Crunchyroll (CR); Strike Witches went onto those same three services that July. October saw CR play host to premiering series Linebarrels of Iron and FUNimation push Shikabane Hime onto YouTube, Hulu, Joost, and their newly launched video portal. Crunchyroll added Shugo Chara and Skip Beat in November; in January, they took on Gintama, Natsume Yujincho and Naruto Shippuden, the latter of which Viz also streamed through Naruto.com, Hulu, and Joost. Crunchyroll added Hitman Reborn in March.

One of the things that worries content providers about putting their video portals is whether the sites will actually generate revenue. It seems that Crunchyroll has gotten off to a good start by establishing an attractive platform for foreign content owners to get their properties global reach – a Yomiuri article about TAF 2009 relays the following figures for Crunchyroll: 4.5 million visitors who were often exposed to advertising, 1.5 millions of hours viewed monthly, and almost 15,000 paying memberships at $6.95 a month ($100,000+ of regular revenue).

On its about page, Crunchyroll says “[p]roceeds from the subscription service are shared among [their] content publishers”. It’s assumed that a portion of advertising revenue also goes toward that pool of creators. The question is whether the allocated distribution is based on a uniform rate or dependent of video views. That distinction could be be important for a studio in financial troubles like GONZO, which is undergoing restructuring.

This increase in legally available streaming anime is intended to change fan behavior and contend with fansubs. It has certainly affected my viewing habits as I have been patient in waiting for this season’s episodes to appear on CR and Funimation’s portal. However, wanting too much more might hurt the system more than it might help.

It’d be foolish, and selfish, to be expect every future series to be streamed online gratis because there has to be a way for some profit to be made in order to recoup production costs not already covered by sponsors. Otherwise, each complimentary stream has potentially cost the studio revenue that may have earned through selling the episode on its own.

In the months before Funimation announced their licenses for the first season of Linebarrels of Iron (not the whole 24?) and Strike Witches, both were available to be streamed for free on Crunchyroll. Linebarrels still is and that may be due to a separate licensing deal that Gonzo has with CR that may count as a “global” license as opposed to Funimation’s region 1 license. The distinction could have been a factor in why Funimation has only the first 12 episodes or they may just be acting cautiously even though I am certain that they will put out the remaining 12 on DVD by late 2010.

Strike Witches, on the other hand, is no longer viewable on CR but I think that April 10th & 11th were the “kill” dates written into Gonzo’s general digital distribution arrangement involving that, Tower of Druaga, and Blassreiter. My evidence for this theory are the rental period end dates for each series on BOST’s site.

Finally, I’m going to muse on Funimation’s free strategy for a bit. The company offers many episodes for free on its video portal, Hulu, Joost, and YouTube; sells download-to-own (DTO) episodes through its own site, Xbox Live Marketplace, the PlayStation Network, and iTunes; and produces physical DVDs. The first one provides a way for potential customers to preview a series — or potentially watch the whole thing — and generates some advertising revenue; the latter two are actual sales and provide more direct revenue for the company and assumably their licensees, by extension.

While I admire the firm’s attempt to diversify their business model, I wonder how much measurable benefit it receives from putting entire series, e.g. Jyu-Oh-Sei or Ghost Hunt, on their portal and how those freebies have positively or negatively affected DTO and DVD sales.

Earlier that same week, there was a back-and-forth between CBS and Hulu following the disabling of embeds Feb. 17 on TV.com, which was part of CBS’ acquisition of CNET Networks in June 2008. (CBS content doesn’t show up on Hulu because the network hosts videos on its proper site as well as TV.com.) That was followed by Hulu pulling content off Boxee (a media center program) and explaining that it was done at the request of their content providers. TV.com came out with an iPhone/iPod Touch application (iTunes link) on Friday, increasing the sense of competition between the two sites.

Joost wrote a short message about the anime matter, saying they “hope to be able to allow you to embed and watch these shows on other sites again soon”. Just before publishing this post, I checked Joost and embed codes have returned to Viz’s shows – I was able to get self-embeds of Death Note and Naruto Shippuden from Hulu to play more often than not, so maybe Viz’s posturing has ended for now.

One might be quick to say “Viz just doesn’t get it!” and I would partly agree while positing that the ability to embed full-length episodes doesn’t matter that much and that it’s ultimately their content to control. Since FUNimation launched its own video portal, I have wondered whether pre-release subtitled episodes would be removed once the relevant DVDs hit shelves. I don’t think they have done that so far (it’d be easier to find out if the videos included upload dates) and in fact, they have added dubbed episodes in anticipation to and after a season set has come out, e.g. Ghost Hunt, Ouran, School Rumble Season 2. Subtitled versions of other entire series – Jyu-Oh-Sei and Shigurui, for example – were added to Joost during two seperate updates this past week.

Videos on FUNimation’s own portal do not have embed codes and there doesn’t seem to be a need for them to add such functionality, since their offerings on Hulu, Joost, and YouTube already offer those. Between Hulu and Joost, I prefer Joost’s method of letting the viewer know if something is able to be embed, that is, simply removing the link. Hulu, by comparison, has to show the embed code as part of the way their on-site player works with no indication to the user if their embed will work or not.

Like the majority of content on Hulu, many of FUNimation’s series have expiration dates such as Blue Gender eps. 1-26 (March 3rd) and Kiddy Grade eps. 14-24 (April 14th) while a few like Mushi-shi have “never” as their to-expire date. (Death Note episodes also bear a “never” expire date at the moment.) Hulu says, in their content FAQ, that how long they keep certain videos on the service “depends on streaming clearances granted by our content partners”. FUNimation often mentions “limited digital rights” in their license-announcing press releases, meaning they likely have to let the Japanese copyright holders know what services they plan to distribute on when making agreements. I can’t be too cheesed because both BG and KG are on their portal and their YouTube channel.

Back to whether embedding of episodes is actually important. When Hulu and Joost each launched dedicated anime channels in late September, I wrote a post explaining how being on those services would benefit FUNnimation, Viz and other studios. After dubbing the process of putting content on multiple portals the “octopus approach”, I had suggested that “the act of offering up shows for free in an embedded format has a good chance of increasing brand awareness and driving users to other similar sites” with the ultimate goal of selling DVDs if people like what they see enough. Five months later, I still believe that offering free content online helps to build a company’s good will within consumers’ minds but I’m less confident about the embedding part.

I admit there is the potential for organic spreading of those videos in single instances, such as when Game 5 of the 2008 World Series went into what turned out to be a very long rain delay and Deadspin’s live blog embedded a funny episode of NewsRadio – specifically, the one with the complaint box. The ability to link to other things is one of the basic foundations of the Internet, and embedding one of the cores of general Web 2.0 functionality, so it’s only natural that things like that happen. However, I haven’t seen many cases of significant, collective embedding on a single site apart from ANN’s deal with Joost. (That note from Joost I linked to earlier – here is it again – mentioned NarutoWire as another example.)

I think most users are fine with watching the content on a portal’s proper site where there is a navigable listing of other episodes because free and legal sounds good enough to the mass audience. I suspect many of the individuals who deeply desire broad embedding of full-length anime episodes are those who frequent and/or operate sites that have a similar structure to sites that collate embeds of fansubs hosted on Veoh/Megavideo, to make an odd comparison. (While composing this post, I had thoughts of starting an website to keep track of all the free-and-legal streaming anime currently available and I may attempt creating such a thing in the weeks to come.)

In fact, Blassreiter and Tower of Druaga can still be seen through Crunchyroll. They have already received English subtitles through that process but I figure that FUNimation will want to compose their own translations, which is probably a smart thing as their staff should have more familiarity with English flow and those results would help in the dubbing process. It’d be nice if two subtitle tracks (Gonzo’s and their own) were included in the sets but I can understand if doing the timing for both would be too time-consuming.

In D.Gray-Man news, CJ reports that the series’ website has been updated with an auto-playing (!) trailer and release dates for all four box sets. It was already known that the first will be released on March 31st so the new dates are set #2 on June 23rd, set #3 on October 6th, and the fourth and final one on January 5th, 2010. Initial English casting has been confirmed over the past few weeks with Todd Haberkorn voicing Allen Walker (and also directing ADR), Travis Willingham playing Yuu Kanda, Luci Christian as Lenalee Lee, Jason Liebrecht as Lavi AND the Millennium Earl, and J. Michael Tatum as Komui Lee. Other less core roles are Cherami Leigh (Mai in Ghost Hunt) as Road Camelot (come on! spell it with a K!), Wendy Powell as Hevlaska (the Innocence assessor), and Chris Sabat as Marion Cross (Allen’s mentor). [ALSO: Katsura Hoshino will be resuming the manga's serialization in Shonen Jump on March 9th.]

Like CJ, I watched the trailer on Funi’s site and I share some of her insecurities about its current adaptation process. The slogan “Death is His Gift” does not instill confidence in me as a potential viewer; it’s on par or perhaps worse than their slogan for Darker Than Black: “Everybody Wears A Mask”. (By the way, exorcists were offering “gifts of death” to attendees around Katsucon, according to their newly launched blog.) Granted, I have only seen the first 23 episodes but that is enough for me to have concern about how less central characters such as Miranda Lotto, Bookman, Reever the scientist, Aleister Crowley/Arystar Krory (however they choose to spell his name), and Eliade might be cast. (Supposedly, Colleen Clinkenbeard will play Miranda – both she and Miranda’s seiyuu Megumi Toyoguchi played respective versions of Winry in FMA – and Chuck Huber will voice Reever.)

Casting information for other series that may have gone under the radar: Big Windup! (aka Ookiku Furikabutte) and Romeo x Juliet. Since Big Windup is about high school baseball, a bunch of dudes are in the cast including Greg Ayres as catcher Takaya Abe, Sean Michael Teague as pitcher Ren Mihashi (he’ll also voice Benvolio in Romeo x Juliet), and Cynthia Cranz (Botan, Yu Yu Hakusho; Ku Fei, Negima) as manager Maria Momoe. The loosely-based-on-Shakespeare title will feature Chris Burnett (Santa, My Santa) and Brina Palencia (Maho, BECK; Mikoto, School Rumble) in the title roles, Colleen Clinkenbeard as Cordelia, Mike McFarland as Tybalt, J. Michael Tatum as William (a more flamboyant role than DGM’s Komui), and many others. In case you want to sample the show right now, the company’s video portal currently hosts subtitled versions of the first 18 episodes.

Going back to the announcements I mentioned at the beginning, the company is continuing its 13-episode box set strategy of releasing seasons in two parts except for possibly Dragonaut – the press release says they will release “the series beginning in late 2009″. That may indicate a complete set but the inclusion of “beginning in late 2009″ that appears in the other three releases gives me a pause and makes me consider whether there was something omitted or perhaps the second set will come in 2010.

Their current strategy may work practically for something like Tower of Druaga that has relatively distinct seasons but they may be stretching the concept with Bamboo Blade or even Romeo x Juliet, which will be split into two 12-episode sets with releases in “spring” and “summer”. It would be nice if they broke from their half-season routine for their new license box sets, though they aren’t entirely stuck in that pattern. Take their Case Closed sets as an example: each has between 25 and 27 episodes. I acknowledge the half-season method seems to work for them from business and production perspectives – I simply would like them to vary their releases more, if possible, knowing that the resulting prices for those would be higher, a problem that could be partly remedied if they did a few subbed-only releases…

Just a reminder: existing FUNi licenses without semi-solid DVD release dates include Big Windup, Gunslinger Girl Il Teatrino, Heroic Age, Kaze no Stigma, Nabari no Ou, Oh Edo Rocket, Romeo x Juliet, Sgt. Frog/Sgt. Keroro, Shikabane Hime, Slayers Revolution, and Soul Eater; as-yet-undated reissues include Gungrave, Samurai Champloo, and Venus Versus Virus. [Gad Guard, Ikki Tousen, Last Exile, and Murder Princess all have tentative May release dates. Vandread has a date of April 7th and The Count of Monte Cristo (aka Gankutsuou) has one of April 28th.]

Also among the listings is a never-before-released title – Murder Princess, with a release date of May 12th (its website confirms this) and the same $49.98 MSRP as Gad Guard et al. Fifty bucks seems high for the six-episode OVA Murder Princess but that may shift lower when online retailers update their listings.

Other FUNimation releases that are listed as hitting shelves in May are (all bear May 30th placeholder date): Case Closed: Season 5 ($49.98), Claymore Volume 5 ($24.98), a double feature of Dragon Ball Z movies 12 & 13 – Fusion Reborn and Wrath of Dragon – on standard DVD and Blu-ray ($24.98; $39.99), Dragon Ball Z season 9 box set ($49.98), and Karin: Complete Collection ($69.98). More cover art assets lie after the jump.

UPDATE 2/21: TRSI updated their catalog earlier this week and
pretty much all the above releases were part of it, including a lower price for Murder Princess. So here is their lineup (w/ affliate links):
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*sigh* Do any of you remember how some early singles purchasers of ADV titles became irritated when box sets came out soon after the final single had come out, and later thinpaks that were stripped of the singles’ extras? Customers began to expect a box set/thinpack release for all series, so many waited until those came out to make their purchases instead of going the more expensive route of buying single volumes. Seeing that behavior, along with evaluating packaging costs, likely spurred FUNi toward their current strategy of putting most of their new series out in 12/13-episode “season sets” – recent exceptions include Darker Than Black and Baccano! Part of FUNi’s reasoning in this case might be to head off depleting stock of the previous box sets, which aren’t hard to find online right now, but a potential jump in sales of a valuable brand could also be a motivation.

I decided to research the previous Region 1 releases using ANN’s extensive release catalog and here’s a breakdown of the last three packaged releases of FMA in shiny disc form:

1) initial run of singles:
Vol. 1 on Feb 8, 2005 – Vol. 13 on Sep 26, 2006; 13 volumes in 20 months.
MSRP: $29.98 each – total: $389.74

2) Viridian collection reboxing:
two re-releases monthly starting Oct 16, 2007, the final three on Mar 4th ‘08.
MSRP: $19.98 each – total: $259.74

3) four box sets:
#1 on Sep 18th ‘07, #2 on Nov 13th, #3 on Jan 15th ‘08, #4 March 11th.
MSRP: $49.98 each – total: $199.92

After the upcoming “season sets” hit shelves, each individual episode will have been put out FOUR different times. I guess I’m lucky that I didn’t buy any of the previous releases so I’m looking forward to these if I decide I really want to own the series. It’s worth noting that FUNimation has begun reauthoring episodes in their latest 25/26-episode box sets, such as Mushi-shi, to fit more onto a single disc – the two sets coming in spring should each consist of 4 discs. It’s not the repackaging model that Bandai Entertainment used in their Anime Legends collections of throwing old volume discs into a bulky box, allowing FUNi a little more product per shelf inch in Best Buy and other B&M stores.

All this may not matter anyway when the new adaptation of the manga premieres in April. It will most likely bear a widescreen aspect ratio – the first series was full frame – and trend more closely toward the original storyline, meaning once manga-only Xing and its characters should show up. It’ll hopefully address some of the plot issues (particularly those in the last twenty episodes) and other problems that annoyed an Animefringe writer in spring 2005. Opinion Prone laid out possible routes it could take earlier this month and though I share the concern many have about the production catching up to the manga, which has monthly chapter releases, I am not too worried about it.

Like any other cease-and-desist notice, this latest action by FUNimation does not necessary mean that they will distribute any of the series that don’t involve Innocence as a source of supernatural powers. Kadokawa Pictures USA previously announced an in-house license for the first season of Spice & Wolf at Anime Expo but whether that also encompasses the yet-to-air second season is unclear as, well, it hasn’t been broadcast yet. I doubt it does. Also: in June, KP USA included Mushi-Uta among 11 series they wanted AnimeSuki to stop listing.